Pure ridiculum. Cliffs Natural Resources Chairman and CEO Lourenco Goncalves descended into a xenophobic tirade against China during a Friday conference call in which he warned Australia to choose sides in a world where it was helping an “enemy” build up.

China will “bring Australia down” Goncalves said as he reiterated his position that the big diversifieds are oversupplying the iron ore market. He went so far as to suggest that trade with China was a questionable strategy, noting that he was doing everything he could to separate the Cliffs business from China “since the day I put my feet here.”

At one point during comments he went so far as to implore Australia to rethink its trading with China. “I hope the Australians will continue to question themselves why one or two companies are giving their finite resource away to the Chinese while the Chinese build into a military powerhouse in the South China Sea,” Goncalves said.

He added: “So it is a…myopic approach to world geopolitics and economics.” He contrasted that view and the strategy by diversifieds to pursue low-cost production and volume to Cliffs, which focuses on the US.

here is a gross contradiction in Goncalves argument, that it was China in the first that drove a boom in iron ore prices in the past decade.